Will Self Quotes

My novels tend to come about from a fusion of two big ideas, creating a critical mass that then fissions, throwing off hundreds of other particles, riffs, tropes and characters.

Will Self

• Character
• Bigs
• Novel
• Creating
• Critical

• Previous
• Next

Quotes to Explore

• Not to oversimplify it, somebody once said a good rule of thumb in interpreting a character is to find the good in the bad people that you portray and the bad in the good.

  

  Gabriel Byrne
  • People
  • Good
  • Character

• My nursery school did a production of 'The Three Little Pigs.' I played the third pig. When the wolf knocked on my door, I refused to get up and answer it because, to me, he was knocking the wrong way. I just lay there, snoring away on stage, fully immersed in my character. My dad turned to my mom and said: 'Dustin Hoffman.'

  

  Zooey Deschanel
  • Up
  • School
  • Character

• I'm not averse to being a supporting character. I try to pick parts where I can add something.

  

  Laura Dern
  • Character
  • Try
  • Add

• But in action, one defies one's character.

  

  Daniel Bell
  • Character
  • Action

• When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character.

  

  W. Somerset Maugham
  • Character
  • Friends
  • Personality

• It's always been my dream to just continually do really cool indie movies, character-driven stuff. I would love to do more theater on a larger scale. I'm just excited for the next thing that comes along that I'm salivating over. I think a little more guerrilla would be really exciting to me.

  

  Tatiana Maslany
  • Love
  • Character
  • Dream

• What happens with every role, you have to trick yourself, you have to creatively find ways to explore the mental state of your character.

  

  Irrfan Khan
  • Character
  • Yourself
  • Explore

• Profitability comes from loyalty, productivity, and having a character base from which to work.

  

  Zig Ziglar
  • Work
  • Character
  • Loyalty

• What drew me to the character is that Roberto Duran is the son of an American soldier - a Marine - stationed in Panama and a humble Panamanian mother, and he was abandoned.

  

  Edgar Ramirez
  • Character
  • American
  • Mother

• I'm proud that Della was sort of a prototype for TV secretaries. There really was no such established character on TV when 'Perry Mason' came along.

  

  Barbara Hale
  • Character
  • Proud
  • Along

• Character is the indelible mark that determines the only true value of all people and all their work.

  

  Orison Swett Marden
  • People
  • Work
  • Character

• I am a professional actor, and I don't go about moralizing about what the character does. Otherwise, seriously, why be an actor? You're not making some kind of social statement. That's not what actors do.

  

  Malcolm McDowell
  • Character
  • Professional
  • Actor

• My director is usually aware of what works for me and what doesn't. For 'Srimanthudu,' I have to give full credit to director Koratala Sivagaru for handling my character the way he did.

  

  Mahesh Babu
  • Character
  • Way
  • Works

• I tend to gravitate toward conflicted characters, and a character who is exploring chaos theory and population control and the difficulties of love and family is pretty rich.

  

  Ed Stoppard
  • Family
  • Love
  • Character

• I wasn't the biggest Captain America fan, but increasingly, I see him as a great character. Winter Soldier really got into what it meant to actually represent America.

  

  Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • Great
  • Character
  • America

• One is made by all the things around one. There are many things that have made one. For a writer to go around looking for things that have made him is asking for trouble. It's like giving a character to yourself. Can't do it. Can't do it. These things are just there. Is that enough?

  

  V. S. Naipaul
  • Character
  • Giving
  • Yourself

• I believe that pop culture is just, like, so ready for 'Watchmen.' We tried so hard to ride that wave between satire and reality, and all the things that make you still care about the character, but you don't miss the commentary about them.

  

  Zack Snyder
  • Believe
  • Character
  • Reality

• The destructive character lives from the feeling, not that life is worth living, but that suicide is not worth the trouble.

  

  Walter Benjamin
  • Life
  • Character
  • Feeling

• Every film you're commissioned to write is all about an arc; usually, the arc is that the world creates a change in the character, usually for the better. To not have an arc, the messages and ideas in the film became more prominent.

  

  Dan Gilroy Breakfast Club
  • World
  • Character
  • Change

• The fundamental purpose of a novel like Count Julian is to achieve the unity of object and means of representation, the fusion of treason as scheme and treason as language.

  

  Juan Goytisolo
  • Language
  • Achieve
  • Novel

• I had a pretty good career at home. What keeps you going is not having a plan B. It's a very good thing. I think if I had a viable plan B, I might not have kept going.

  

  Ben Mendelsohn
  • Good
  • Home
  • Pretty

• Civilization is built on a number of ultimate principles... respect for human life, the punishment of crimes against property and persons, the equality of all good citizens before the law... or, in a word justice.

  

  Max Nordau
  • Life
  • Good
  • Law

• My novels tend to come about from a fusion of two big ideas, creating a critical mass that then fissions, throwing off hundreds of other particles, riffs, tropes and characters.

  

  Will Self
  • Character
  • Bigs
  • Novel